Irish Businesswomen Show Anything is Possible

Before I sojourned off to Spain, I was a guest of Patricia Rooney, General Manager of Murphy Environmental Hollywood Ltd at the Women Mean Business Conference & Awards at the Shelbourne Hotel.

The theme of the day was ‘Anything is Possible‘, inspired by leading businesswomen JK Rowling who said “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve” and Oprah Winfrey who said “If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race”.

This theme was carried through the entire day, especially at the networking session prior to lunch. Perhaps it was the sunshine streaming in through the windows, but there was a palpable air of positivity - things are on the rise.

The women that I spoke with were sustaining their businesses and creating opportunities while acknowledging that things aren’t as good as before. There was realism mixed with positivity and it was quite motivating.

Awards Ceremony

After lunch, the awards ceremony kicked off. Patricia Rooney, my host, was nominated for Businesswoman of the Year award. A well deserving nominee, of all the women I know, she has an unlimited supply of energy. The passion she brings to Murphy is obvious to see given the success of the business which she started from scratch and as President of Drogheda Chamber for the past 15 months.

Unfortunately, she didn’t win and the award went to Cathriona Hallan, MD of Microsoft European Operations Centre.

I met up with Veronica Canning, author of Shoeisms who was a finalist in another category, the Accenture WMBig Idea Award. Another deserving nominee, and unfortunately, she didn’t win either.

It got me thinking about awards. It’s always a little bit disappointing when you don’t win. Human nature being what it is - our the competitive spirit compels us to win. However, over 200 people applied for these awards. 15 people got short-listed. That’s a fantastic achievement in itself.

Perhaps award ceremonies should acknowledge the finalists a bit more - at the end of the day, there is only one official winner. Yet those 11 women who didn’t take home an award are winners. They beat 185 other women to be short-listed and recognised for their achievements.

I’m sure that we will see a lot more from the award winners and the short-listed candidates in the future. I’ll certainly be looking forward to reading more about them in the new Handbag-sized Women Mean Business magazine.

Congratulations to all the winners who have motivated the rest of us to believe Anything is Possible.

Click here for more details on the winners and finalists.